


World Walker

by frozenCinders



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Gen, Self-Discovery, literally every character besides vanitas had to be an oc, only the most desperate of vanitas stans will sit through this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-29
Updated: 2019-03-29
Packaged: 2019-12-26 00:40:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,969
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18272303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/frozenCinders/pseuds/frozenCinders
Summary: Stripped of his ability to use dark corridors, Vanitas is at a loss for what to do when other worlds still beckon him. With no control over where he's going and nobody around to help him, he tries to make the most of the situations he gets stuck in. Even if only on a subconscious level, certain words begin to reach him.





	1. Kingdom of Cards (Struggle)

**Author's Note:**

> i realize that chapter 1 contains entirely too much garbo to take in, so feel free to skip that one if you're not feeling it. chapter 4 is the most important one anyway
> 
> anyway i put vanitas in a bunch of my future books + one final bonus world, and each chapter holds a gentle message for him that is hinted at in each title.

The first thought that goes through Vanitas's mind when he wakes up is that he is no longer where he fell asleep. He doesn't open his eyes yet, but he starts to register a breeze as well as grass under him. He's outside, then.

He opens his eyes and sits up. He didn't fall asleep with his helmet on, but it's equipped anyway. He's grateful for it, however odd, because he can already sense some type of presence coming.

Uninterested in dealing with whoever it is, Vanitas stands and instinctively tries to walk through a dark corridor. Right, he forgot he can't summon those anymore. Instead, he faces the nearby city, one that gives off an immense, eerie feeling of unease, and heads straight for it. It only makes sense that such things would attract someone like Vanitas rather than repel him.

When he reaches the city, he's equally as pleased as he is confused to discover that _nobody_  is outside. He doesn't want to have to sift through crowds of people-- doesn't want to be around people at all, really-- but this is odd. He focuses and tries to find the point in the city holding the most darkness, but it just feels like a ghost town to him. He can't sense anything.

Vanitas continues wandering, just waiting to find out what's going on, until he suddenly senses darkness like that he'd been searching for just prior. He turns around and finds a lone woman. Her outfit and stance makes him guess she's some type of assassin, but a good assassin would have attacked him before he could realize she was there.

"Respond," she commands. This confuses Vanitas. Did she try saying something before that?

"Respond to what?" he asks. This apparently sets her off, and she lunges at him. She's unarmed, but since she appears to know what she's doing, Vanitas summons his keyblade to defend himself with.

It's only after blocking a swing from her that he can see the blades attached to her arm under her sleeve. He's lucky he followed his instinct and didn't block it barehanded.

"How did you resist?" she asks, cryptically. Vanitas keeps thinking of more questions than answers, but she doesn't seem interested in giving him any information.

"Look, I have no idea what you're upset about. I _just_  got here. If there was anything to resist, I must have missed it," Vanitas says, and this seems to satisfy her.

He expects her to at least say something, but she just leaves him without a word. Vanitas stares after her until she takes a sharp turn into an alley and disappears. He assumes from the sudden burst of speed just then that trying to follow her is futile. So, instead, he keeps roaming the streets, looking for anything of interest whatsoever and finding nothing.

That is, until he happens to see the girl again, at a distance. She's standing next to someone who is little more than a silhouette at this distance, but Vanitas senses absolutely nothing from this person, for some reason. He's careful not to reveal himself as he gets closer, eventually distinguishing the unfamiliar figure of a man with long, purple hair and brilliant red eyes that seem to glow. At the same time, he is reminded of one of the members of Organization XIII as well as a Flood, of his own Unversed. If Floods could take human shape, they wouldn't look nearly as calm as this man, though.

"Right there," the woman says, and Vanitas realizes she's pointing him out. Rather than continue to hide, he walks into view and faces the two of them. Vanitas strains to feel _anything_  from this guy and fails.

It's a long time before anyone speaks, so Vanitas is the one to break the silence.

"Well?" he simply asks.

He only continues staring at him, and the woman looks to the man. Vanitas notices that she's quite tall, to be at eye level with this guy.

"Who are you?" he eventually asks Vanitas, who has no idea why it took him that long to think of a single question.

"None of your business. Try introducing yourself, instead," Vanitas challenges, just because he's grown to loathe instructions of any kind, even implicit ones.

"I am the Ace of Diamonds," he sort of introduces, but doesn't give an actual name. "I have recently discovered that I am the lone heir to my kingdom."

"The prince had been denied his calling until the Queen of Diamonds was finally removed from power," the assassin explains. "Now, he is free."

"That's nice, but none of that means anything to me," Vanitas says. "Free from what, anyway? The thing she said I resisted?"

"Free from a prison of isolation," Diamonds corrects. "This month has been my first experience with the outside world. As you can see... it did not go well."

"As I can see? I haven't seen anything besides you two since I got here."

The assassin nods.

"People are difficult," Diamonds says. "They do not respond in ways that I can predict. They unsettle me."

Vanitas starts to feel like he might be in danger and stays quiet for the moment.

"It started with one person. They reacted unfavorably to me, so I used my power to change how they felt. Someone witnessed this and became agitated, so I used it again. Things continued like this until the entire city fell under my control." He pauses for a moment. "I do not want this."

"It is unheard of for a member of the Diamonds family to possess such powerful abilities," the assassin speaks up. "They can normally only commune with and control animals, not humans. This anomaly may be why the queen locked him away. I am meant to search for her, but I cannot leave my liege."

"And I will not leave home."

Vanitas contemplates the information he's been fed. He would guess that Diamonds holds unfathomable darkness in him after hearing his story, yet he still can't sense anything from him. It also occurs to him that he has ended up in another world, which he doesn't think has ever happened against his will before. He wonders how he arrived as well as how he's meant to leave.

"You appear unfazed. Why?" Diamonds asks him.

"... How much do you expect me to care? This stuff has nothing to do with me," Vanitas answers with ease. Diamonds didn't ever really stop staring at him, but he tilts his head now.

"My Two says you don't reside here. I cannot let you spread word of what has happened."

It's a threat, but his voice is so deadpan that it's almost hard to tell. Vanitas sees a red glow in the center of Diamonds's forehead and, at a loss for what else to do, Vanitas quickly moves to attack him. His swing is blocked by the assassin.

"I have been honored with the title of 2 of Diamonds. If you think you can raise a hand to him while I live, you are a fool."

"So to get to him, I just have to make sure you aren't alive first. Sounds easy enough."

Vanitas almost isn't able to dodge the flurry of blades that assault him as he finishes saying that, and he's about to counter before someone calls out to them.

"Please don't fight!" a high voice yells. Vanitas feels oddly calm all of a sudden. Two lowers her arms as well, switching off from the offensive.

He turns his head to see a short girl with fluffy curls running towards them, with two men close behind her.

"So wait, which one of them is the troublemaker?" one of the guys asks. The other, whose eyes are hidden by curly red hair, seems startled by the first one looking at him for an answer.

"How... how am I supposed to know?"

"Um... Ace of Diamonds?" the girl addresses, looking between Vanitas, Diamonds, and Two. Diamonds seems to have ceased his attempt to control Vanitas, and he's tempted to run while he can.

"That's me," Diamonds answers. "More people venture where they don't belong..."

The glow starts up again.

"I must handle you quickly, before you become an issue. I apologize," he says.

"Handle?! Hey, are you threatening the princess?!" the more energetic of her men exclaims. "You should be able to guess that we're not gonna let that slide!"

The other one remains quiet, but he does take something out of his satchel and starts fiddling with it. It doesn't take long for Vanitas to realize he's building some sort of small weapon.

"Wha?! No, I said no fighting!" the princess repeats. Again, the glow disappears, and Diamonds seems shocked by this.

"... Which royal family do you belong to?" he asks, touching two fingers to his forehead as if searching for his dissipated power.

"Oh, I didn't introduce myself..!" She takes a moment to curtsy, seeming like a totally normal princess, as opposed to the odd, isolated prince. "I am the Ace of Clubs. These are my Two and Three. Um... I'm here because I caught word that something bad happened in this city. Everyone is blaming you, Diamonds, but that can't be right... can it?"

Diamonds stares, and Vanitas is just glad that that gaze isn't on him anymore.

"That's a loud silence," one of her men accuses.

"Three, you're gonna make him mad..!"

"Your family's inherent ability is Subjugation. No wonder they sent you," Diamonds surmises.

"And yours is Mind Control, which sounds pretty guilty to me," Three reiterates.

"Oh, uh... well, nobody sent me. I actually came on my own. After... being told not to..?"

Clubs reminds Vanitas of Ventus. She's even got a similar hair color. He doesn't care for the reminder, nor the situation at hand, so he slips away while everyone is distracted.

Once he's finally free of the city, Vanitas travels far away from it. It takes a day to find civilization again, and this time, it isn't a ghost town.

"Did you hear? The prince is passing through the village!"

"Right now?! Where?"

"Is his Two with him? I heard he left her behind with that awful king."

Vanitas figures they must be talking about a different prince. He wonders how many royal families there are in this world, for there to be so many different heirs running around.

Before he can even finish that thought, someone roughly brushes past him. He doesn't actually care besides being a little annoyed until the person turns slightly to glance back at him. It's a very tall and imposing woman-- taller than Two of Diamonds-- with an intense glare and a cigarette held near her lips. As soon as Vanitas locks eyes with her, he feels an odd sense of physical tranquility. His mind works fine, unlike when Clubs had called out, but he feels like he would be in trouble if he had to fight right now.

So he says nothing. She exhales the smoke she'd been holding in and just keeps walking. Soon, a smaller woman runs after her, pausing to apologize to Vanitas.

"I'm sorry. She was looking back to see if you were okay, not to start a fight. I promise," she assures.

That sounds unlikely. He watches the taller woman's back as she continues walking away and marvels in how much darkness he can feel emanating from her. The princess seemed to be made of pure light, while this woman has lost most, if not all of her light.

"Are you going to see the prince?" An older lady in a shawl whispers beside Vanitas.

"I guess. If everyone is so excited about this prince, I might as well take a look."

The old woman laughs lightly.

"The other prince of this land is beyond salvation," she says, her tone quickly sobering despite having laughed just prior. "The power of a Diamond increases when it is put under immense pressure, especially from a young age."

Her face is covered, but Vanitas guesses by the way she turns her head to the horizon that she's staring into the distance.

"I made a drastic mistake," she says.

Vanitas thinks of responding, but a small but excited crowd crooning about the prince distracts him. Vanitas climbs up the signs on the building the old woman is sitting huddled next to for a better view and sees two young men. One looks a bit rough, with dirt on his face that Vanitas watches him give up on brushing off, but he appears to be full of energy. The other, an immaculate boy, looks to be made very uncomfortable by all the attention. Vanitas thinks it'll be boring if that one is the prince.

Sure enough, the rough-looking boy laughs and dramatically presents the other, introducing him quite excitedly as the Ace of Spades. Unfortunate.

Already uninterested in this new prince, Vanitas instead follows the tall woman from earlier. He's willing to bet that she's a member of a royal family as well, if they're so common here.

Vanitas goes in the direction she disappeared into, but he doesn't manage to find her. That is, until he spots her talking to the prince.

"What... did you just say?!" Spades exclaims, and Vanitas has to move closer to hear the woman's low, rough voice.

"You heard me. I'm going to kill your father, and the world will be better off for it."

Oddly, despite seeming like the loud and annoying type, the boy Vanitas assumes must be Two of Spades only silently stands near Spades, with an arm placed defensively in front of his liege.

"Move, Three. I can't let her threaten my family," Spades orders. Right, Vanitas recalls someone mentioning that his Two was a woman that he left behind.

The woman seems to find that hilarious, yet the laugh she barks out sounds humorless and angry.

"Yet the Hearts family should be slaughtered at no consequence?! You have interesting logic, boy."

"What--?! I never said anything about that!"

"And you don't know a single thing about your father, do you?"

"Wait... who are you?" Three asks. Vanitas feels that it's obvious by now.

"I am the Ace of Hearts," she answers, "and you can rest assured. I'm not determined to end your bloodline for no reason. Not like him. The King of Spades is the only one who needs to suffer."

That darkness Vanitas can practically see pouring out of her is fueled by a desire for revenge, then. He finds her name ironic, as it likely won't be long before she loses her heart. If Vanitas were so inclined, he bets he could hurry the process along, in fact.

The Ace of Spades, conflicted about the implications he's just heard, unsheathes his rapier anyway.

"Fool boy. You would protect a monster?" Hearts goads him. "Attack me and see what happens."

So he does. Or, at least, he tries. As soon as Spades gets close, Hearts backhands him across the face hard enough to make him recoil and follows with an effortless kick to the stomach that sends him right back to where he was standing.

"What... what happened?" Spades asks himself, dazed.

"I have better things to do than play with a little boy," Hearts says. On cue, her Two Vanitas met earlier stands in front of her and allows Hearts to walk away at her own pace.

"Actually, you can go, too," Vanitas offers, moving to stand between her and Spades. "I've been itching for a fight anyway. I'll take these two."

"No, you won't," Two declines as soon as Vanitas summons his keyblade. "Lay Down Arms will not allow it."

"What won't?"

"You can make this fight one-on-one for me if you wish to assist me," she says. "A Spade must be fought barehanded or not at all."

He tries to swing at Spades, just to see what would happen, but his keyblade disappears as soon as it gets within a foot of him. Shrugging, Vanitas calls it back and lunges at his Three instead.

Three is quite a scrapper; enough to give Vanitas a hard time. He looks over at Two and Spades every so often and finds himself impress with how an unarmed girl manages to keep a famed prince with a weapon on the defensive. Three almost lands a hit while Vanitas is distracted, but he jumps back.

"Enough, Spades!" Three calls out, running to him. "We need to leave before we get overwhelmed!"

"But--!"

"I don't like it either, but let's go!"

Vanitas stands and watches them retreat, paying Two of Hearts no mind even as she approaches him.

"You oppose the tyrant as well, then?" Two assumes. "The princess isn't good at making friends or allies. We could use your assistance."

The one who seems like a bad guy is fighting the actual bad guy, then? Vanitas supposes it doesn't matter, since the darkness within Hearts is real.

"The princess and I had... a traumatizing experience when we were both young," she goes on. "The King of Spades had her parents killed for opposing his ways, and the princess only survived because she was so young and he happened to be called away. He knew she was too broken to run away. But I was not."

Vanitas realizes now that he can probably only follow one of the royal heirs, since all their problems seem to be happening at once. He likes Hearts the most, but following her will probably be a mostly boring trip to wherever the King of Spades lives. He wants to go home, and he has a feeling Hearts isn't the right path to follow.

Diamonds, however, resonates with and intrigues him. A powerful being that was tortured with despair in order to make him stronger sounds a lot like Vanitas himself. It's just the mind control he'll have to watch out for.

"Wish you luck on your whole regicide quest, then," Vanitas says, having made his decision.

Two of Hearts bows to him and smoothly spins on her heel to take her leave.

Since Vanitas has an actual goal in mind this time, it doesn't take him as long to get back to the city. He still has to stop on the way to sleep, though, and Two of Diamonds is present when he wakes up. Vanitas jumps to his feet and immediately calls his keyblade, assuming a fighting stance.

"You've wandered away from your liege," he notes. Then, he thinks of something. "How many people know his story?"

"... What? Nobody," she answers, confused. "All anyone knows is that nobody has ever seen the Ace of Diamonds. The queen grew less and less kind until the people got upset with her and ran her out of the city... I may have had a hand in this revolution."

"So then, the woman who said it was a mistake to ruin the prince's childhood... would that be the queen you're looking for?"

She gasps at that.

"You found her?!"

Instead of lowering her guard, she only seems even more ready to fight.

"Tell me where she is! My liege demands it!"

"You only want her location to ask her a question," Vanitas says, "or else I know you would have killed her, were you capable of it. She did it to make him stronger, but I guess she went overboard and made him too powerful."

"She told you this..?"

Vanitas nods slowly. After a while, Two of Diamonds turns around, apparently done with Vanitas.

"It is an insufficient answer..." she says, but she leaves anyway.

During the rest of the trek to the city, Vanitas contemplates the Ace of Diamonds. How could one so crushed from a young age not be overwhelmed by darkness? It's not a common issue, considering the Ace of Hearts. Has Diamonds lost his heart and been reduced to pure neutrality? That might line up with Vanitas's inability to sense anything from him.

Vanitas doesn't quite reach the city when he comes across Diamonds. He also notices that there is noise coming from the city, as if life has resumed in it. Diamonds is more expressive than Vanitas had seen him thus far, looking panicked and conflicted.

"I... can do nothing to the Ace of Clubs," he says. "She released the city from my hold. I fear what else she might command."

"I will not allow harm to befall you," his Two promises.

"She gave you the information I got, right?" Vanitas asks, his voice pulling Diamonds's eyes up to him. "My turn to get some answers. Just how do you hold no darkness inside of you?"

"... I do not?"

Diamonds seems just as surprised by that as Vanitas was.

"You lost your heart, didn't you? But it seems like you somehow skipped the Heartless phase and went straight to being a Nobody."

"Heartless? I already told you that my actions held no cruelty behind them," Diamonds protests.

"Not that kind of heartless," Vanitas corrects. "I'm talking about when someone gives up their heart and lets it sink into darkness. This makes a Heartless and a Nobody."

"When did I lose my heart..?" Diamonds asks.

"Don't know. When did you stop being able to feel?"

"I can."

Vanitas freezes at that.

"You mean you remember what it was like," he insists. There is no possible way that he survived a childhood like that without falling to darkness.

"No. I'm not certain why you're convinced that I cannot feel, but I can. Perhaps things would have been easier if I could not..." he muses. It sounds like a sentiment Vanitas could easily have expressed at any point, which unsettles him.

"How did you not succumb, then..?" Vanitas quietly wonders aloud. Then, he looks to Two of Diamonds and realizes that she must have been supporting him. She drove the queen out, after all. He finds himself stewing in envy all of a sudden, wishing that he'd had anyone to support him. Oddly, he doesn't see any Unversed spill out of his shadows. Maybe he's not feeling it hard enough.

No longer interested in Diamonds, Vanitas turns around in a huff and leaves. He's surprised that his Two lets him go, but he's not about to stop and ask why.

Just as he's thinking about finding the Ace of Hearts if he can, a tired-looking, scruffy man steps in front of Vanitas. He scratches the back of his neck before holding a hand out in front of him.

"You don't belong here, buddy," he says.

"Are you looking for a fight?" Vanitas asks, but the guy doesn't seem aggressive.

"Resident peacekeeper of the world, here. You're not a peaceful presence, _and_ you're not from this world. On account of all that, you've gotta go," he explains.

Vanitas expects an attack, but he only opens a shining portal for him.

"Out," the man simply commands. "I won't ask again. Jacks aren't known for solving stuff peacefully; don't make me live up to my reputation."

Since Vanitas doesn't figure he'll be able to catch up to Hearts any time soon without access to dark corridors, he reluctantly walks through. It's not home that he arrives at, however.


	2. Land of Constellations (Identity)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> fun fact: "ansere" is pronounced "on-seyr" with emphasis on the latter half of the name.

As soon as the bright light from the portal flickers out, Vanitas notices that it's night in whatever world he's in. He looks up just to glance at the moon and is confused when he sees no stars in the sky. Watching the stars was the only peaceful thing he could ever do, back in the day.

He dislikes this world already.

From the roof he stepped out onto, he can hear people chatting quietly on the ground. The building is low enough that Vanitas doesn't have to strain his ears to hear them.

"... You know they just pull those theories out of thin air, right? First of all, how is one guy just being around supposed to keep the constellations alive? How does that even make any sense?"

"I don't know, but I heard something happened to him and that's why--"

"I think we would have known by now if something happened to Lord Inagan."

"That's the thing, though! We've never seen him, so we really wouldn't know!"

"The stars have been gone for years now. We would _know_  if there was a connection."

So if Vanitas finds this Inagan, the stars might come back? He doesn't know how long he'll be stuck in this world, so that's motivation enough for him. He ignores the startled noises the strangers make behind him when he hops down from the roof.

It doesn't take more than five seconds of looking around to set a goal, as there is a giant spire that likely serves as either a capitol or perhaps some kind of magic ruins. Either way, it beckons Vanitas, and he can feel an aggregate of darkness within it even from the mile or so away he must be.

He manages to slip into the building without being immediately detected, but he can feel that he's trespassing. He moves with caution, checking corners and ceilings and keeping his guard up. It's a long time before he finds anyone, and it only ends up being one person.

He waits around the corner for _anything_  to happen, but the guy seems more interested in leaning against the wall and doing nothing. Realizing he doesn't have to play nice, Vanitas turns the corner without hesitation.

"..?! Intruder, no trespassers may leave Lord Inagan's castle alive!" the guard threatens, pulling a lance on Vanitas.

"Would you believe me if I said I had an appointment?"

Vanitas has to dodge a jab.

"Worth a shot."

The guard looks quite competent, but Vanitas quickly learns that those are just glamor muscles, because he's not a challenge to neutralize. He didn't even manage to set off any sort of alarm, so Vanitas can continue exploring as he wishes.

"If you could change anything about your past, what would it be?"

Vanitas jumps forward and quickly spins to face the source of the sudden voice, resuming his fighting stance. He barely has time to see the man raise his hand in a casual enough gesture, just pointing up like he has a small note to add to a conversation, before Vanitas is enveloped in light once more.

When his eyes don't burn anymore, he opens them to find that he's outside again. He observes his surroundings, sensing that something feels... out of place, somehow. Then, he happens to look up. The sky is dusted with stars, clear as day. Vanitas lets himself stare for a moment.

Then, it's ceiling he's staring at. He blinks rapidly in confusion before lowering his gaze back down to the odd stranger from before.

"What did you just do..?" Vanitas inquires, resuming his stance again just in case.

"I showed you a glimpse of the past," he answers like it's nothing. "The stars have been gone for what feels like forever. It can be easy to forget how pretty they were, huh?"

The man steps forward and extends a hand to Vanitas.

"Name's Astrin Charat. And, for the record... you didn't see anything," he says with a comical wink.

"... My name is Vanitas. And I'm only telling you because I have a feeling you're looking for Inagan, too."

Astrin seems taken aback by that.

"Who... who calls him just Inagan? Like, woah. You clearly aren't one of his guys!" he laughs.

"What can I say? I've always been a little different."

It's a bad joke that only reminds Vanitas of his own misery. Stewing in negativity is something he's great at, though.

"... You gonna shake my hand, or..?"

Vanitas only dismisses his keyblade and turns around. He doesn't think he's ever shaken anyone's hand, and he has no interest in starting now.

"Wow, okay. So, like, I offer to fix your past and you just ignore me?"

That makes Vanitas pause.

"You were serious?" he asks, turning to look at Astrin over his shoulder.

"... Well, the current you would cease to be if I changed your past. Basically, I'd be killing you. And, uh..." his cheerful demeanor seems to waver for a second, but he keeps it in check, "obviously, I don't wanna do that."

Vanitas belatedly notices that Astrin's canine teeth are sharp and poke out when his mouth is closed. It makes him think that this seemingly nice and mild man is secretly a monster. He would rather monsters just be up front about who they are, like Vanitas himself.

Vanitas eventually turns around fully and takes Astrin's hand. The moment he makes contact with him, another annoying light quickly flashes and the texture of the ground under his shoes feels different. He tries to rub his eyes, forgetting that his mask is in the way, and settles for just resting his hand on his helmet and silently damning the fact that the tint isn't dark enough from his side to dampen all this light that keeps blinding him.

"Heheh, sorry about that," Astrin says, stepping away from Vanitas. "You really aren't allowed in there."

"But you are?"

Astrin ignores his question, clearly pretending he didn't hear it. He looks around for something, muttering things like "now where..." under his breath. Vanitas senses someone behind him after a bit and cautiously turns around.

"Um... Astrin, did you bring this guy?" the new guy asks. Vanitas is shocked at his timid tone, considering how much power he can feel coming from him. The feel of it reminds him of Xehanort, and he quickly backs away from the newcomer.

"Oh, there you are!" Astrin exclaims as he runs past Vanitas to greet the man. "Wearing my coat again, huh? Jeez, I can't let you out of my sight for two seconds!"

He takes the coat off the man's shoulders and dons it himself. On the smaller man, it looked more like a cape-- especially with how he kept his arms out of the sleeves and had nowhere near enough height to keep it from dragging on the floor-- but Astrin is absurdly tall and fits into it quite nicely. His height is monstrous like his fangs, Vanitas muses.

"I was cold," he offers as an excuse.

"You're always cold! I've gotta hit a library one of these days and see if that's got to do with head injuries. Or, like, a hospital. Could go to a hospital to find that out, probably-- Oh!" Astrin suddenly turns to face Vanitas, making him tense slightly. "So thiiiiis! Is Ansere!"

"Uh, me! Hi!" Ansere adds to Astrin's enthusiastic introduction.

Astrin jumps over to Vanitas, clearing several feet in one hop, and talks behind his hand to him.

"He had an accident that gave him some kinda brain damage or something a while back. Left him with amnesia, suddenly really bad eyesight, and some other stuff," Astrin tells him, and Vanitas doesn't suspect he'll hear his voice be this quiet ever again. "I had to help him relearn a _lot_  of super basic stuff. Like... how to hold a spoon right. I'm basically his dad now."

Astrin would make a terrible father, Vanitas thinks. His eyes wander to Ansere, who he notices is just kind of walking off, staring into space.

"Woah, hey!" Astrin calls out as he herds him back towards Vanitas. "Not even gonna meet our new buddy?"

"Oh yeah." He holds his hand out just like Astrin did mere minutes ago. "I'm Ansere. I didn't forget that you heard it. Um... I don't know how else to meet someone."

Vanitas reintroduces himself and, only because Astrin annoyingly eggs him on, he sighs and shakes Ansere's hand.

"Yeahhh! Now we're all friends!" Astrin cheers, adding his hand to the mix and forcing Vanitas to stay in contact with both of them. He lets Astrin move his arm around, his face twitching in annoyance behind his mask.

"Why have you brought me here, anyway?" Vanitas asks once Astrin finally lets him pull away. The seemingly permanent cheerful look in his eyes seems just as shallow as Vanitas suspected for the moment that he looks at him, but he soon gets distracted and looks just as happy-go-lucky as he always does.

"You wanna find Drenar, right? Us, too," he says. Vanitas assumes Drenar is Lord Inagan.

"Oh..! Uh, why do you want to find him?" Ansere asks, standing entirely too close to Vanitas. He must have learned the whole invading personal space thing from Astrin.

"I've got nothing better to do," he answers as he steps away a bit. He pauses before adding, "I want the stars back."

Ansere tilts his head, squinting and looking down like he's thinking hard about something. He had a goofy look on his face-- also probably learned from Astrin-- until then, and Vanitas didn't expect him to be able to look so serious.

Then, Ansere is startled back to reality by Astrin's sudden clapping.

"Yay, we all have the same goal! We really did just get a new travel buddy!"

He then swings an arm around Ansere's shoulders and starts pulling him around and chatting at him. Vanitas thinks that was a really obvious distraction. He has no clue what conclusions he could possibly jump to from that, but it feels like a good one is just out of his reach.

For the first time, Vanitas is forced to travel with a small group. It feels less like there are actually three of them and more like Vanitas is just following the pair, to the point where he's briefly confused whenever Astrin starts trying to talk to him. The way he's treated in general on their short journey confuses him. Offering him food is one thing, people need it to survive, but what's the point in offering him treats? Why ask him to play games with them when they've been managing to entertain themselves adequately with just the two of them? Why keep trying to include Vanitas in conversations that aren't even important?

He doesn't get it.

Vanitas doesn't know how long they've been on the road for before something finally happens. Astrin somehow manages to pick out one of Inagan's servants, even happening to hit upon a higher-up to boot, and a fight ensues. It's mostly just Astrin and the lackey, but Ansere almost gets caught in the crossfire and decides to make an effort to help if he's in danger anyway. He ends up getting the glasses punched off of him, and his face is pinched in what Vanitas interprets as rage for a split second.

The fighting stops with two simultaneous gasps, all eyes on Ansere.

"I... I am so sorry-- I wouldn't dare--" the man stammers, suddenly repentant.

Indeed, Ansere looks like a different person when you remove the glasses and the Astrin-esque smile. Vanitas wonders what kind of person Ansere could have been like if anyone else had found him before Astrin. He wonders what kind of person he himself could have been like if Xehanort had let him go after separating him from Ventus.

Vanitas was too distracted by Ansere to immediately notice what Astrin is doing. He and Ansere both seem to notice at the same time.

"No, you said we wouldn't hurt anyone!" Ansere shouts as he rushes Astrin, knocking his powers loose as he stumbles and loses concentration. Streaks of white light skitter around impossibly fast, all feeling like assaults to Vanitas.

"The power of the stars is addicting," Vanitas hears suddenly, though his eyes are blinded. "I fear that I will one day swallow the sun."

"Huh? Can you even do that?"

The already familiar chuckle in the voice reveals it as Astrin.

"It would doom the world," the other voice continues. "It frightens me."

"Then don't..."

Something makes Astrin trail off.

"I am asking you because I trust you more than anyone else; especially myself."

Vanitas's eyes finally adjust, and he sees the same face that had just surprised him earlier.

"End me."

Vanitas feels sick as he's immediately hurled to another point in time. He hears a man screaming in agony and doesn't whip around fast enough to see what happened, only catching sight of a woman with a powerful rage in her eyes.

As soon as Vanitas blinks, the woman is replaced by Ansere. He is without his glasses, wearing Astrin's coat like when he first met Vanitas. The dark red fabric is stained darker.

"You can't ask me again." His surroundings have changed once more. "I already failed once. You know how I love my time loops."

"The world was better off with Ansere," Ansere says, "and worse off with me. I continue to bathe this world in darkness. Killing me would free the light."

Somehow, Vanitas can hear that line in his own voice. He can hear himself admitting that Ventus is the better half, and that Vanitas himself brings no joy to the world; so clearly, in fact, that he makes contact with his mask again in a failed attempt to check that his mouth is in fact closed.

"I never thought of you as a different person," Astrin says. Vanitas lays eyes on him in candid for the first time, and thinks that maybe he isn't a monster.

"You're no lesser because of the darkness."

Vanitas's eyes open wide in vulnerable shock, and he watches the world morph into a different one entirely.


	3. Mind Game Domain (Connections)

Less than a minute after Vanitas steps foot into this new world, he hears a voice.

"An alien, I suppose, then. Delightful."

He turns around to see a man who looks to be middle-aged. He's dressed nicely--

"Why, thank you. I unfortunately have nothing to say about your own garb."

Did he say that out loud?

"... You can read minds," Vanitas catches on.

"And you don't want to be here," the man observes back. "Why, then, have you come?"

"Is there even a point to talking if you're psychic? Why not just read my mind some more?"

"Oh, spare me. Nobody else knows of this little quirk of mine, so I'm quite used to conversing normally."

"You call this normal?"

"It can be!" he remarks with a faint, sardonic smile. "Let's start with introductions. I'll pretend I don't hear your name before you say it out loud, and you'll pretend I was never able to in the first place. You may call me 646."

Again with the number names? He thought he was out of that world.

"... That's not a name," Vanitas says rather than introducing himself. 646 is silent for a moment before giving Vanitas a look.

"Ghost, Robinhood... the Altruist! Anything you wish to call me; be my guest. Now, because we both "know" that I have no way of obtaining your name without you saying it aloud..."

"Vanitas," he reluctantly caves. He doesn't particularly like this weird old man so far. It's also odd to him that he might as well have just said that to 646's face, but he does a good job of pretending he didn't hear it.

Just as Vanitas is wondering how he's meant to proceed to another world, a second stranger shows up.

"Who's the, uh..." the new guy trails off before lowering his voice. "Do you know this guy?"

"I do now," 646 says, and although he keeps his voice calm and mostly monotonous, Vanitas interprets it as a bit cheery. "I think he was on his way to one of those... video game conventions, or-- ah, Comic Con, that's one."

"Comic Con isn't on anytime soon."

"Well, maybe it's a close-knit, personal little Comic Con-- does it matter? He looks like the type of person who would be just _excellent_  at distracting 7 for us."

"7? So you guys all named after numbers?"

"Uh, just two. I'm Gustavo," the new guy corrects. "And, 646's theory is that 7 only named himself that after meeting him, so it's kind of a copycat-type thing."

"Still doesn't really explain what kind of name 646 is."

"Don't, uh..."

Gustavo suddenly approaches Vanitas and pulls him aside, which Vanitas finds useless considering 646's ability.

"I wouldn't press about his name. I've been his right hand for years and I still have no idea what it's about," he says. "Just saying, you probably won't get a straight answer. They're, uh, pretty hard to come by in general when it comes to him."

Vanitas just pulls his arm out of Gustavo's hold, barely acknowledging the warning.

"I'm no one's distraction," he finally declines, uninterested in helping some eccentric stranger who won't even properly introduce himself. "Find someone else to do chores for you."

He turns to walk away, but 646 calls out to him.

"Is there nothing you want, Vanitas?" he asks. Vanitas expects him to go on some kind of tangent about how he can offer him money he doesn't care about or power he no longer has a use for, but he just waits for a response instead. He supposes his own contemplations are a response anyway, to a mind reader.

"What I want is to be left alone."

Memories scurry around in his subconscious-- bad ones that he's always holding back-- and he can tell 646 is able to interpret them when he hears him quietly say, "No, you don't."

Gustavo looks between them, confused, before appearing to suddenly remember something.

"Right, well, whether he's helping or not, we need to act fast. Our 24 hours are already down to 3 and this doesn't seem like a good way to spend our time."

24 hours for what?

"Right, 7 has quite an affinity for time limits these days," 646 subtly explains, disguised as an innocuous comment. "In your absence, I've discovered that a cargo train will be passing by in three hours. There are still dots left to connect."

"That... doesn't give us much to go on. Is he gonna blow it up, or what?"

"It wouldn't be the first time he did something of the sort. That forest fire was a hassle to put out."

This 7 guy sounds more like the type of person Vanitas would work with. 646 gives him a sidelong glance at that thought and he forces his mind to go as blank as possible, sick of being read so easily. There's a tense silence between them for a few seconds.

"Go, then," 646 says. It could easily be interpreted as him accepting that Vanitas isn't going to help him and shooing him away, but he thinks 646 is actually encouraging him to go assist his enemy instead. He acknowledges, vaguely, that this is probably part of his plan to use Vanitas as a distraction, but he accepts it anyway and leaves to begin looking for 7.

Now that dark corridors are beyond his ability, he has no choice but to hunt this guy down on foot. He has no idea who he's looking for, and whoever he asks about "a guy who goes by 7" just gives him a strange look. He stops trying after the third person and just wanders over to an empty park to sit in peace for a while.

At least, he thought it was empty. When he approaches a bench, he notices someone dressed almost like an Organization member in how hard his outfit is working to hide him. He's sitting on the ground just in front of the bench, with a computer on his lap. Vanitas thinks nothing of it and, only because he doesn't feel like walking anymore, sits on the other side of the bench rather than going somewhere else. He looks up at the sky, noticing that it's taking on hues of orange as opposed to the blue from earlier.

"Guess they don't have much time left," he mumbles.

Vanitas hadn't even necessarily noticed that the stranger had been typing nonstop until it's suddenly unusually silent. He resumes whatever he's doing after a moment, though, and Vanitas stops paying attention to him.

"Nothing," the stranger says out of nowhere after a while. "You have _nothing_  on you?"

Vanitas looks at him but doesn't move his head to do so, so the helmet could easily make the stranger think he's ignoring him completely.

"No phone or anything?"

"What's it to you? Need to call your mom to pick you up?"

"... They have five minutes left," the guy says, almost experimentally. It would seem Vanitas has found who he was looking for.

"Thought so. What do you have in store for them?" he asks, although he really can't bring himself to care much. If 7 doesn't answer, he won't push the question.

"A cargo train is going off the rails once the time limit is up," he explains anyway. Vanitas shrugs.

"... I didn't set this in motion, you know," 7 says.

"They seem to think you did. They were saying you were probably gonna blow it up."

"646 didn't say that," 7 says, oddly insistent. Vanitas takes a second to recall that he's right; it was Gustavo who said it, and 646 only replied that it wouldn't be unusual. Isn't that the same thing as agreeing, though?

"I guess he didn't, but the other one did."

7 starts typing again, cycling through screens that Vanitas can see in his peripheral vision. He turns his head just enough to actually see the screen and can hardly read anything on it. There's too much going on, and the only thing that makes sense to him is what appears to be camera footage that 7 is following the train through. The windows and windows of text surrounding it mean nothing to him.

"You gonna tell me who you are? Since 646 obviously told you to ditch your devices," 7 says like he's sure he must be right.

"You think I'm working with that guy?" Vanitas can almost find it in him to laugh. "I'm not even supposed to be here."

"Switching sides, then?"

He meant this world in its entirety is not somewhere he belongs, but he doesn't reply.

"Anyway, what do devices have to do with who I am?" Vanitas asks as an afterthought.

"My information gathering is second only to 646. Everyone assumes he's some kind of super hacker, but I bet he can barely use a computer. I'm the real deal," 7 boasts. "You think I'm supposed to be allowed to see through these cameras? We're not even meant to know they're there."

"Everyone but you assumes that, then. I guess he let it slip to you too?"

7 quickly turns his head to look at Vanitas in what he assumes is shock under that hood, and the camera he's looking through loses track of the train while he's distracted. Oops. It looks like Vanitas accidentally did his job.

"He _told_  you?!"

Vanitas only stands because 7 does, and because he has a strange feel to him now.

"I had to hound him about it just so he'd stop _denying_  it, and he still hasn't even technically admitted it!"

"... What, are you jealous? I don't even care about that old man."

7 lunges at him, but Vanitas's reflexes haven't dulled. Within seconds, he has the tip of his keyblade under 7's chin, who has now halted. He uses the keyblade to move the hood, just because he's a little curious. Under it is a young man with dark skin; darker than Xehanort's was. There is darkness in him, Vanitas can sense it, but he's nothing like the menace that guy was. In fact, his darkness appears to be less, somehow, than what Vanitas glanced in 646.

"If you're gonna make me show my face, the least you could do is return the favor," 7 says. He doesn't seem scared at all, just reasonably mild now that Vanitas is actively threatening him.

"My face is none of your business. You won't know me long anyway," he declines. He dismisses his keyblade and looks down at the laptop that is now sitting on its own in the grass. From the camera feed, he sees 646 standing next to the train tracks, leaning over to look off-camera to where the train had gone. Gustavo runs on-screen and 646 continues walking in the opposite direction of the train.

Vanitas points at the laptop to remind 7 of what's going on. He scrambles back to the position he was in before, not bothering to spare a moment to pull his hood back on as he stares at 646 through the screen.

"Where is he going? Wait..."

7 starts changing cameras again, rapidly switching through them until he finds the train, still moving along as normal.

"Shit, I should have been watching the intersection, not the train!" He starts backtracking to get to whichever intersection he's talking about.

"You sure do sound like a super genius," Vanitas comments, unimpressed so far.

"You have no idea how good 646 is at making everyone look like idiots," 7 says in his defense. "I can't believe he did it. He really can figure _anything_  out."

Vanitas guesses from all the context he has so far that something was going to go wrong at an intersection on the train tracks, and 7's way of doing something about it was to come running to 646 with a vague "you have 24 hours" threat. This guy seems really immature, in Vanitas's opinion. There was also the insistence that this wasn't his fault, which was likely a lie. That, or he just didn't particularly care what happened.

"Why not tell the police, or whoever?" Vanitas asks since he's already thinking about it.

"Are you kidding? They don't get anything done. You can give them every single piece of information and they won't do a thing, but 646 changes lives with the tiniest amount of hints to go on. He's--"

"The god you worship, it sounds like."

Vanitas actually does laugh this time when 7 doesn't bother denying it.

"If you don't feel the same way, you don't know anything about him," 7 says.

Vanitas shrugs. He's never felt that way about anyone, or anything. He had fleeting moments of thinking he admired certain people, even a second or two where he thought "I wish I were like that," perhaps, but never worship. Honestly, rarely even respect.

As he doesn't feel a light enveloping him to force him into yet another world, he figures he still has something or other left to sit through before he's done here. Time to go back to 646, he guesses.

It turns out that both 646 and his weird adversary are impossible to find except by accidental encounters. This city is too big to search top to bottom, so Vanitas just decides to find a place to stay for the night and call it a day, hoping he'll wake up and somehow be home.

He ends up staying at a hotel and wakes up exactly where he fell asleep, not counting him tossing and turning in his sleep. He doesn't even feel like starting the day, but he eventually gets up anyway after probably an hour of staring at his surroundings and wondering why he can't just go home. He's not sure what he even considers his home, if he's honest. Maybe that's why he's being thrown from world to world.

Once he's on the streets again, his mind drifts back to 7 and his whole thing about 646. Maybe it's because the prospect of worship sticks in Vanitas's mind that he wanders into a church, just to have a look inside.

Lo and behold, he spots 646 there. Vanitas thinks that there's no way 646 could hold faith, not when he has such easy access to everyone's darkest secrets.

"I'm not the one praying here," 646 says by way of greeting. "People who are desperate for a miracle are easiest to find in the house of god."

"So you're a miracle worker?" Vanitas asks, opting to lean against the pew 646 is in rather than sit next to him. A creature like Vanitas wouldn't be welcome in a holy place anyway; he's already pushing his luck just by being here.

"Something like that. These days, I'm more in the business of working miracles for children rather than... miserable adults. But, I still dabble in eliminating debts and such."

Working miracles for children. Vanitas could have used someone like that about ten-odd years ago.

"I apologize for you being out of my reach, then."

"I don't like being forced to open up to you," Vanitas says, but he doesn't move to leave.

"Nobody does. It's why my ability must remain a secret. Only three people in this world know of it, including myself, and you don't even belong here to begin with. That being said, do you have the slightest clue on how to get home? You seem to be planning to rely on me for that, somehow." 646 is rightfully incredulous at Vanitas assuming he can somehow send him home.

"This isn't the first world I've been pulled to, and I doubt it'll be the last. Do you need help with anything or whatever?" Vanitas reluctantly offers. "Doesn't seem like I'll be able to go home until everything in this world is taken care of."

"Whatever this world's problems are, are just that. There is no reason for you, of another world, to interfere," 646 reasons, and Vanitas would buy it if he didn't essentially have proof of the contrary.

"Are you even certain that _you're_  of this world?" Vanitas asks, since magic doesn't seem to exist here outside of what Vanitas himself still possesses, and whatever 646's ability counts as.

"Sometimes, I wonder..." 646 muses as his answer.

Another being who doesn't belong anywhere, maybe.

"Another? Then you're wandering the galaxy or somesuch because you don't belong anywhere?"

"Alright, that's really getting annoying."

"Indulge me, you're the only person I do this with."

Vanitas wonders how 646's eyes can look empty and warm at the same time. He feels like the Nobodies Vanitas briefly worked with. Why would someone without a heart be called an "altruist" if they could not feel anything? There's no point in bringing joy to others if one can't feel it oneself.

"You appear quite in tune with the emotions of other people," 646 notices. "I suppose that makes you a stark contrast to myself."

"Of course. Hard to empathize with emotions if you haven't got any."

"But you do?"

So many, so powerful, that they physically manifest into hellish little creatures, in fact. Vanitas realizes that, since he started this unwilling journey, no Unversed have been spawning. He assumes it's because he hasn't really been feeling any strong emotions, but it still pings as unusual to him.

"That all sounds like magic that doesn't belong in this world," 646 comments.

"For such an apparently nice guy, you sure aren't subtle in telling me to buzz off."

Done caring about where he is, Vanitas walks forward. If some holy force repels him or whatever, so be it.

Nothing of the sort happens. The church appears to be mostly empty aside from himself and 646. He doesn't feel any eyes on him as he approaches the altar.

When nothing happens after a few seconds of staring, Vanitas turns around. His surroundings have changed, and the building is now truly empty. Assuming he's stumbled into another world, he braces himself for the next bout of nonsense he'll have to deal with as he opens the church doors.


	4. The Nightmare (Acceptance)

As soon as Vanitas steps outside, he hears a scream. A girl sprints up to him, hesitating for a moment as she looks inside the church, and only seems to notice him just as she's about to start running again.

"You have to _go_! Don't let it see you!" she warns, and then she's gone before Vanitas can ask what she's talking about.

He looks in the direction she ran from and sees a giant monster, appearing to be some sort of centipede-spider hybrid. Its movements are strange, erratic, and _wrong_ , as if it's a glitch in some program. Vanitas considers ducking back into the church and waiting for it to pass, but he quickly figures that he needs to save that girl to be allowed to proceed to the next world, so he instead summons his keyblade and jumps into the monster's path.

When the spidery creature lays eyes on Vanitas, it appears to change targets. As such, its shape changes as well, morphing to better suit its opponent. It shrinks down to nothing in order to start from the ground up.

Glowing golden eyes are all he can make out among melting shadows that contaminate everything they touch. They blink rapidly before glueing to Vanitas, following even the slightest movement. It rises up, becomes larger, but he still can't make out the shape of it; only the watery darkness sliding up the walls of the church and across the ground. Vanitas steps back.

Rather than a malfunctioning insect, Vanitas is faced with what essentially looks like his own essence. And he is terrified.

When faced with anything he didn't like, Vanitas's first instinct has always been to fight it. The only exception to this rule had been Xehanort, whom he could do nothing about. Now, Vanitas finds himself staring down another exception. His keyblade almost seems to dismiss itself automatically, and he turns around and runs.

Even now, the Unversed do not spawn from his fear. He's always hated them, but he curses the fact that they refuse to show up and even act as distractions. He doesn't remember being this scared, this consumed by dread, for a very long time. His fear is renewed every time he glances over his shoulder and has to take in the sight of it again just to see if it's gaining on him.

He runs across this never-ending wasteland with nary an obstacle in it, no place to hide aside from the damned church he should have stayed in, until he can't run anymore. Exhausted, he falls to his knees and holds his arms with a tight, trembling grip. He looks behind him, blinking through the tears he's been fighting for hours, and notices that the monster has stopped moving. Its darkness continues to spread, creeping towards Vanitas in the form of a puddle, but it doesn't go quite far enough to touch him. It makes no sound whatsoever, forcing Vanitas to hear nothing but his own panting and pathetic sobbing. He hates this. He thought he was done suffering like this.

Again, he finds himself in a situation where he could just give up. He remembers Ventus and Sora standing in front of him, trying to reason with him. He gave himself to the darkness then, so why not now?

He slowly stands, lungs and muscles still burning, and forces himself to walk towards the mass of darkness, fresh tears falling as his instincts cry out for him to stop. The darkness creeps up his legs when he steps in it, and envelops his body when he falls to his knees again. He thinks it odd that it doesn't hurt. The darkness embraces him gently.

It takes a while of there being no apparent consequences to what Vanitas just did for him to look up. Those eyes continue staring at him, communicating nothing. He can't make out much of a tangible form in the utter blackness, but he eventually, hesitantly, moves to embrace it back. It doesn't feel like anything but air. He's not afraid anymore.

When Vanitas next opens his eyes, he's home. He hears Ventus and Aqua laughing outside. A feeling of belonging tugs at him for the first time in his life. He guesses can stay, then, if the world seems to want him so bad.

**Author's Note:**

> if you managed to read the whole thing: first of all, you must be very bored and confused. second, thank you for taking the time to read something i spent way too much time and effort on 
> 
> my writing sideblog is frozencinders.tumblr.com and i would be Eternally Grateful if people would send me mundane prompts to write about vanitas


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